Contemporary electronic marketplaces may identify recommendations of items for customers in any number of ways. For example, an online marketplace may recommend an item to a customer based on purchases that were made by the customer in the past, with the expectation that a customer who is interested in a first item that he or she previously purchased may also be interested in a second item that is related to the first item. Likewise, an online marketplace may recommend an item to a customer based on purchases made by other customers, with the expectation that a customer who purchased a first item may be interested in a second item that was purchased by other customers who also purchased the first item.
Occasionally, items may be purchased at an online marketplace for different people on behalf of a single user account, even if the different people have different preferences, interests or tastes. For example, two spouses who live in the same household may elect to order items from an online marketplace using a common user account (viz., a “multi-user account”), particularly where the spouses use a common payment instrument (e.g., credit card or debit card) to pay for their purchased items, or where the purchased items are intended to be delivered to a common destination. Additionally, a child may also order items from an online marketplace using a multi-user account maintained by his or her parents (e.g., books or supplies purchased for use by a student at a boarding school or college). Finally, a customer may purchase items as gifts for others using his or her user account, even though the customer may not have any personal interest in any of the items that are purchased.
Purchases of items that are made by or on behalf of different individuals from a single user account may disrupt or confuse systems or methods that are intended to provide recommendations of items to customers. For example, where the users of a multi-user account have divergent interests, and the online marketplace identifies an item recommendation based on a prior purchase made on behalf of one user of the multi-user account, the item recommendation may be appropriate for that user and inappropriate for others. Likewise, where a customer purchases an item from an online marketplace on behalf of a user account as a gift for another person, any systems or methods that identify recommendations of items based on purchases made on behalf of the user account may be misled into believing that the customer has an emerging interest in the item on the basis of his or her purchase of the gift, which may or may not be accurate. Therefore, existing systems and methods for identifying item recommendations based on actions taken on behalf of a user account maintained at an online marketplace may be inadequate where purchases are made from the user account by or on behalf of multiple individuals.
Furthermore, items may also be purchased from an online marketplace on behalf of multiple, independent user accounts, and delivered to a single individual or a common destination. In such situations, where authorized users of the respective user accounts do not communicate with one another, or even know that each other exists, such users are usually unaware of purchases of items that are made by or on behalf of other user accounts. For example, where an item is purchased for an individual as a gift by a user of one user account, and the gift is neither returned to the marketplace nor refused by the individual, the individual's interest in the item, and the individual's possession of the item, are typically not known to users of other user accounts who may be interested in purchasing one or more items for the individual. Therefore, because existing systems and methods for identifying item recommendations are typically unaware of items that individuals may have received from user accounts other than those with which such individuals are associated, such systems and methods are typically unable to identify recommendations of items to users who may be interested in buying items for such individuals.